Italy Secondaria di secondo grado – classe 2ª History and geography

Chapters: 2

1. History: ancient and early medieval civilisations

Ancient Near East and Jewish civilisation · Greek civilisation · Roman civilisation and Christianity · Early Middle Ages · Sources of ancient and medieval history

Early Humans and the Beginning of Civilisation – Modern humans (Homo sapiens) first appeared in Africa about 3 lakh years ago and slowly spread across the world, reaching India tens of thousands of years ago. Historians split this long past into ages by the tools people used: Palaeolithic (old stone), Mesolithic (middle stone, tiny tools), Neolithic (new stone, farming), then copper, bronze and iron. When people learned farming, they settled in villages, stored grain and made pots. Some villages grew into planned cities, like the Harappan cities on the Indus and Ghaggar rivers. At about the same time, river-valley civilisations rose in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
Ancient Greece: City-States, Democracy and a Lasting Legacy – Ancient Greece grew up around the Aegean Sea, in a land of mountains, small valleys and many islands. Mountains kept communities apart, so Greeks lived in hundreds of independent city-states (poleis), each with its own laws, army and gods, while the sea linked them through trade. The two best known were Athens, a trading city that developed the first democracy around 508 BCE, and Sparta, a military state. The Greeks united to defeat Persian invasions in 490 and 480 BCE, then fought one another in the Peloponnesian War. Alexander of Macedon later led an army from Greece to Egypt and as far as the Indus, spreading Greek culture in the Hellenistic age. Greek ideas in politics, philosophy, history writing, science, mathematics, theatre, sport and architecture still shape the world.
An Empire Across Three Continents: the Roman Empire – The Roman Empire ruled the lands around the Mediterranean Sea: parts of Europe, West Asia and North Africa. Power was shared, often unequally, among the emperor, the senate and the army. Its economy ran on farming, towns, ships, money and trade in olive oil, wine and grain. Society had layers, from rich senators down to a large number of slaves. Roman traders sailed with the monsoon winds to ports in India. From the 4th century, the empire changed: Christianity became the main religion, Constantinople became a new capital, and the western half broke up in 476 CE. Historians call this time of change 'late antiquity'.
The Early Middle Ages (about 400–1000 CE) – The early Middle Ages is the period from about 400 to 1000 CE. In the west, the Roman Empire broke up in 476 and Germanic peoples (Franks, Goths, Lombards, Anglo-Saxons) set up kingdoms. Most people lived in villages and farmed. The Church and monasteries kept learning alive. In the 600s Islam began in Arabia and spread, with trade and learning. Charlemagne was crowned emperor in 800. Kings needed soldiers, so land was held through feudalism: kings, lords, knights and peasants.
Source Analysis: How Historians Judge Evidence – A source is any trace of the past that gives us evidence: a letter, a coin, a building, a song, a photo or a video. Primary sources come from the time being studied; secondary sources are later accounts, such as books by historians. To analyse a source, ask about its provenance (who made it, when, why and for whom), read its content against what you already know, look for bias, and decide how reliable and how useful it is for your question. Historians check sources against each other (corroboration) and read different scholars' interpretations before writing a reasoned commentary or essay.

2. Geography: the contemporary world

Landscape, cities and globalisation · Population and migration · Culture, economy and environment · Regional geography · Tools of geography

The Making of a Global World – People, goods, ideas and germs have moved across the world for thousands of years: on the silk routes, with food crops like potato and maize, and with diseases like smallpox. Between 1815 and 1914 the world economy grew through three flows: goods, labour and capital, helped by railways, steamships and refrigerated ships. Colonies paid a price: rinderpest in Africa and indentured labour from India. After the First World War came mass production in the USA and then the Great Depression of 1929, which hit India's farmers hard. After 1945, the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World Bank rebuilt the world economy.
The Demographic Structure of Indian Society – Demography is the study of population: its size, how it grows, and who is in it (age, sex, place). Malthus said population grows faster than food, so hunger checks it. The theory of demographic transition says societies move from high birth and death rates, through a population explosion when deaths fall first, to low birth and death rates. Key measures are birth rate, death rate, growth rate, fertility rate, infant and maternal mortality, life expectancy, sex ratio and dependency ratio. India has a young population, which can be a demographic dividend if the young get jobs and skills. India's falling child sex ratio is a warning sign. Villages and cities are linked by migration, trade and media, yet divided by jobs, services and income. India's population policy moved from family planning (1952) through forced sterilisation in the Emergency to the National Population Policy 2000, which stresses health, education and choice.
The World Population: Distribution, Density and Growth – People are not spread evenly on Earth. Most live on fertile plains near water; few live in deserts, high mountains or icy lands. Density tells how many people live on each square km. Geographical, economic and social factors explain the pattern. The world grew slowly for thousands of years and then very fast after 1800. Population changes through births, deaths and migration. The demographic transition theory shows how birth and death rates fall as a society moves from rural farming to urban industry. Countries use family planning and health care to control growth.
Sustainability – Sustainability means meeting our needs today without taking away the ability of future people to meet theirs. It rests on three pillars — environment, society and economy. A resource is used sustainably when we use it no faster than it renews. Today humanity uses about 1.7 Earths' worth of resources a year, and this use is very unequal. Stewardship, careful planning and spatial tools like GIS help us move towards sustainability.
Regional Geography: How We Divide the World into Regions – A region is an area that shares one or more features, which makes it different from the areas around it. Formal (uniform) regions are alike inside, like a plain or a rice-growing belt. Functional (nodal) regions are held together by links to a centre, like a city and the villages that travel to it. Perceptual regions exist in people's minds. Region edges are usually transition zones, and regions depend on each other through flows of people, goods, water and ideas.
Class 12 History Map Work: Finding Places Through Time – The map question in Class 12 History carries 5 marks. You get an outline map and must mark and name places. The places come from the themes you study: Harappan cities, the 16 mahajanapadas, Ashoka's inscriptions, Buddhist sites, Vijayanagara and Mughal places, and centres of 1857 and the national movement. The trick is simple. Remember each place by its river, its coast or its neighbour. Group places by age. Then marking becomes quick and sure.
India Map Work for Class 12 Geography (People and Economy) – In Class 12 map work you locate and label places from the India People and Economy book on an outline map of India: crop areas, mines, oil fields, industrial centres, ports and airports. Learn a key of symbols, learn each place with a clue (near which coast, river or plateau), and practise marking it neatly with its name. Only an official outline map is used; we never draw or argue about borders.
Introduction to Maps – A map is a small, flat drawing of all or part of the Earth, seen from above and drawn to a scale. Every map needs a title, scale, direction (north arrow), legend with symbols, and a grid based on a projection. Maps are grouped by scale (large or small) and by what they show (physical or cultural).
World Map Work (Class 12): Farming Regions, Railway Terminals, Ports, Airports and Waterways – In Class 12 world map work you mark human-geography features on an outline map. Gathering happens in thick forests and cold lands; nomadic herding in dry lands; commercial ranching, extensive grain farming and mixed farming in temperate grasslands and developed plains. Four transcontinental railways cross continents from coast to coast. Big sea ports sit on coasts; big airports can be anywhere. The Suez and Panama canals are short cuts between oceans; the Rhine and the St Lawrence carry ships deep inland.
World Map Work (Physical Geography): Oceans, Plates, Deserts, Seas, Currents and Hotspots – In map work you find physical features on an outline map of the world. Five oceans join into one world ocean. The crust is split into seven major and many minor plates; the Ring of Fire circles the Pacific and the mid-Atlantic ridge runs down the Atlantic. Hot deserts lie near 15°–30° on the west side of continents. Seas are smaller, partly closed parts of oceans. Warm currents flow towards the poles, cold currents towards the equator. Biodiversity hotspots are rich but threatened areas; four touch India.